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Jennifer Heemstra posing after concert with cellist Marjona Khasanova and violinist Cristiane De Leon in Brazil.

Jennifer Heemstra performing chamber music at the Aini Opera and Ballet Hall in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Cellist from Tajikistan performs recital at Escola de Música, Brasilia, Brazil - Marjona Khasanova, cellist from the Central Asian country Tajikistan, arrives in Brasília to perform a series of classical music performances

Marjona Khasanova, cellist from Tajikistan, arrives in Brasília for a series of performances until September 3rd. This Friday (19/8), from 19:30, in the Auditorium of the Escola de Música de Brasília, the first performance will take place. The artist spoke with Correio about the life and culture of the Asian country and the fact of being the first Tajik musician in history to perform in the Brazilian capital.

In the center of Central Asia, immersed in mountain ranges and mountainous reliefs, is the Republic of Tajikistan. Marked in history as a silk road and by its integration into the former Soviet Union, the young nation became independent in 1991, on the occasion of the dissolution of the socialist state. A year later, a civil war broke out in the country and lasted until 1997. In the troubled history of a resilient nation, there was room for art and music to flourish. Among the emerging talents there, the Tajik musician Marjona Khasanova, whose age matches that of the country, uses her imposing cello to show the world the rich cultural value of a region of the globe overshadowed by unfounded stigmas. (full article)

Jennifer Heemstra performing chamber music with the MSU Study Abroad participants at the Goethe Institute - Max Mueller Bhavan in Kolkata, India.

Jennifer Heemstra and Tasha Warren posing with MSU graduate students at the Taj Mahal in India.

Jennifer Heemstra posing with students at Piali Ashar Alo in India.

MSU Study Abroad students explore Agra, India.

Marissa Manthongkham demonstrates her clarinet to students at the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy while on tour with the Pitch Pipe Foundation.

Pitch Pipe Foundation and MSU College of Music
Music Connects Worlds Before Slipping into a Coma

There is a certain arrogance that accompanies a reliance on freedom- especially “American” freedom. Until recently, lack of freedom to travel and see the world sounded as foreign to me as hoarding toilet paper and flour. As a professional musician, the lack of freedom to perform…period…? Science fiction! If someone had told me in late February, as my students and I boarded a plane to India, that this would be our last opportunity to travel for months, possibly a year or more- that the world would soon shrink in on itself antithetical to the virus it was trying to contain, I would have laughed. My American arrogance would have made this sound impossible. Yet here we are. Now nobody wants those crazy Americans setting foot on their soil. Too “American” to wear a mask in public. Too “American” to care about others, or even ourselves.
(full article)

Dr. Tasha Warren, Assistant Professor of Chamber Music
Michigan State University College of Music | August 27, 2020

Jennifer Heemstra performing classical music at the Theme Piano World and Music Institute Kasba, Kolkata, India.

Jennifer Heemstra and other musicians stand on stage for a photo after performing chamber music in Kolkata, India.

Jennifer Heemstra performing clarinet music with Michigan State University graduate students at Theme Piano World and Music Institute Kasbaa, a piano showroom in Kolkata, India.

Jennifer Heemstra performing chamber music with Tasha Warren at Theme Piano World and Music Institute Kasba, a piano showroom in Kolkata, India.

String Quartet performance in Kolkata, India.

Musical Dialogues.

I never know what I’m going to write until I’ve written it; but this time I’ve planned to write just exactly what you may be about to read. It is going to be a brief commentary on an event that took place on the 3rd of March, an event that was rather tentatively organised because our guest performers, were already booked to play at the Goethe Institute in Kolkata on the 2nd, and later at the Calcutta School of Music on the 5th, with projects at Newtown in between and which made us kind of the stuff in a sandwich; could be cheese or perhaps jam?
But I decided to go ahead. Who can resist the iconic Jennifer Heemstra and her exciting musical projects! Here she was, with four clarinetists and a program from Beethoven to Brubeck! Our Effem Ensemble, consisting of two violins, viola and cello, still in its ‘infancy’ having started only last August and with an offering of the Beethoven String Quartet opus 18 no. 1 in F major and a premier presentation of the Four Miniatures for Oboe and Strings by Hussain S. Mohamed was a summons not to be denied. (full article)

Fauzia Marikar, journalist
Serenade Magazine, March 17, 2020

LIVE Interview with Friends FM 91.9, Kolkata, India

Jennifer Heemstra and Susan Williams pose before their concert with the President's Orchestra of Tajikistan in Khujand, Tajikistan.

Jennifer Heemstra and Susan Williams performing an art song recital at the Serena Hotel in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Jennifer Heemstra and Susan Williams performing with the President's Orchestra of Tajikistan in Khujand.

Jennifer Heemstra and soprano Susan Williams pose outside the theatre before their performance with orchestra in Khujand, Tajikistan.

Jennifer Heemstra, pianist, and soprano Susan Williams pose with fans after their concert in Khujand, Tajikistan.

Jennifer Heemstra performing Rachmaninoff with soprano Susan Williams in Khujand, Tajikistan.

Jennifer Heemstra and Susan Williams bow on stage at the Serena Hotel in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Jennifer Heemstra performing classical piano with Susan Williams and the President's Orchestra of Tajikistan in Khujand, Tajikistan.

Первый концерт «Pitch Pipe Foundation» в Худжанде

Впервые в рамках концертных программ «Pitch Pipe Foundation» организовано
мероприятие в городе Худжанд. Данный концерт пройдет 5 и 6 июля, но это не
единственный концерт его участниц Сьюзен Уильямс и Дженнифер Химстры.
Уильямс и Химстра планируют концерты также 2 июля в театре Оперы и Балета
имени С. Айни в городе Душанбе и 6 июля в гостинице «Серена».

(Полная статья здесь)
Газета Таджикистан, 02.07.2019

Jennifer Heemstra performing with a chamber ensemble at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department off State in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Heemstra performing a piano quintet at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Heemstra speaking to audience members after a concert at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Heemstra performing chamber msuic at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Heemstra bowing after performing with a piano quintet at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Heemstra performing chamber music with Carrie Pierce at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

5 For the Future - a unique musical treat.

AAFSW and the Pitch Pipe Foundation hosted a midday concert in the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the U.S. Department of State on August 1, and those who attended were fascinated by what they heard and saw. There were five distinguished instrumental artists who had met each other barely a week before: Er-Gene Kahng from Arkansas (violin), Joel Pagán from Puerto Rico (viola), Dr. Carrie Pierce from Texas (cello), Dr. Wendy Case from Tennessee (violin), and our own 2016 SOSA winner Jennifer Heemstra from Michigan (piano). They performed music by exclusively women composers: rarely heard or newly discovered or recently written pieces for piano quintet. (full article)

Debbi Miller, AAFSW Membership Chair
Associations of the American Foreign Service Worldwide Newsletter, August 2018

Jennifer Heemstra performing classical piano with Courtney Mill at Piali Ashar Alo in Kolkata, India.